About Transformation Garden

Transformation Garden is a worldwide Christian ministry dedicated to encouraging and empowering women in their daily walk with Jesus. The devotional thoughts presented in Transformation Garden have their foundation in the Bible – the inspired word of God.

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Transformation Garden - June 16, 2016

“We have an assured confidence that whenever we ask anything in accordance with His will, He listens to us. And since we know that He listens to us, then whatever we ask, we know that we have the things which we have asked of Him.”

1 John 5:14,15
Weymouth’s Translation

“For years I’ve prayed, and yet I see no change
The mountain stands exactly where it stood;
The shadows that it casts are just as deep;
The pathway to its summit ever more steep.
Shall I pray on?

Shall I pray on with never a hopeful sign?
Not only does the mountain still remain
But, while I watch to see it disappear,
Shall I pray on?

I shall pray on. Though distant as it seems
The answer may be almost at my door,
Or just around the corner on its way.
But, whether near or far, yes, I shall pray
I shall pray on.”

Edith Mapes

“I never prayed sincerely and earnestly for anything but it came; at some time - no matter how distant the day – somehow, in some shape, probably the last I should have devised, it came!”

Adoniram Judson

Today’s Study Texts:

1. “Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed….”

Psalm 25:3
King James Version

2. “And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years (62).”

Daniel 5:31
K.J.V.

EXPLORATION:

“Earthly Power Versus Heavenly Purpose” Part 12

“God’s Timing For God’s Purpose”

“Great haste makes great waste. Adopt the pace of nature. Her pace is patience.”

Author Unknown

Is there a time in my life when I have rushed ahead of God’s leading trying to get what I want?

What was the result?

“The great believers have been the unwearied waiters.”

Author Unknown

INSPIRATION:

“Blessed are they who earnestly wait for Him, who expect and long for Him, for His unbroken companionship.”

Isaiah 30:18
Amplified Bible

My 97-year-old father-in-law, Jim’s dad Ramon, came to the United States over 65 years ago from Cuba. While he still has fond memories of growing up in Cuba, he is one of those individuals who has embraced his new home, the United States, with every fiber of his being. I’m always amused by his great love for all things “western.” Several years ago, he started collecting old western movies and I must tell you, he’s an expert on the genre. Whenever I find myself wanting to watch an old movie, especially one about the West, I call “Papa” and ask him for a recommendation. Not long ago, he told me about a picture starring the fabulous actor, Burt Lancaster, called the Lawman. In this film, Burt Lancaster plays the “supposed” good guy who decides to take the “law into his own hands.” As the movie progresses, you watch in horror as doing what’s right is obliterated by the human drive to do things “my way.” Perhaps this is why we find pictures and tales from the Old West fascinating. Often, we humans, in our longing to see immediate justice done, allow a lynch-mob mentality to drive us to places we could never have imagined.

There’s a story in Leviticus about Shelomith’s son, the child of an Israelite and Egyptian. We are told that a young man who came into the Israelite camp and immediately got into a fight. Who knows why or what the fight was about, but we do know that this young man became so angry he blasphemed and cursed God, which was in direct disobedience to God’s divine instruction. After this intentional disrespect of the God of Heaven, what should happen? We need to remember that when Aaron, the high priest’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, disrespected God and brought “strange fire” before the tabernacle, a story told in Leviticus 10, that “fire went out from the Lord and devoured them.” Their disrespect of the divine office of the priesthood and their disregard for God’s holiness made it impossible for them to survive in the presence of a Holy God. And while it may look, at first glance, as though God killed these two for not doing what He said, I’d like to offer the perspective that it was their own disobedience which caused their demise. Just as Adam and Eve were told by a loving Father to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so all the children of Israel were told directly by God that His holiness was so powerful we sin-filled beings must not be thoughtless or disrespectful when coming into His presence.

It would have been easy for the children of Israel to make the assumption in the case of Shelomith’s son that they could take his punishment into their own hands, immediately. However, as we read the story in Leviticus 24, we find instead, when this young man was brought to Moses, rather than impatiently taking action into his own hands, the Bible tells us, all the people waited until the “mind of the Lord might be shewed them” (Leviticus 24: 12, K.J.V.).

I have to tell you I am constantly amazed by what I learn when I really study the Bible, all of it! Here in Leviticus is a text we should mark well and even highlight in red ink. Wait so that, “the mind of the Lord might be shewed them” Leviticus 24:12)

As I read this text, I thought about all the pain I could have saved myself in my own life if I had waited until I had known “the mind of God.” The great reformer Martin Luther, known for his short fuse and desire to push ahead, wrote these instructive words, discerned from personal experience: “Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him. In Hebrew, ‘Be silent in God, and let Him mold thee.’ Keep still, and He will mold thee to the right shape.” This is the same lesson we learn in Daniel 5 from the interaction between Daniel and King Belshazzar. While it seemed that God’s timing was so slow and that evil was allowed to take over, in fact not only was God at work providing insight to Daniel in dreams regarding the future, it was the overnight elevation of Daniel to the third place in the government which set in motion the perfect place for Daniel to be when in one night’s time King Belshazzar was killed and a new King Darius became the ruler.

I know that in my life I want to be molded into the right person for the right task at the right time by my Father in heaven.

Not long ago, I was pushing ahead, impatient as usual, for God to do something I’d asked – but on my time line and in my way. Then one day as I was working on the daily devotional, I found these words by the great Dave Wilkerson who, I am certain, could have written a book on the topic of “waiting upon the Lord.” I now keep these words taped over my office phone to remind me to always ask God to “shew me His mind” before I plow ahead with what I think is the right thing to do: “It took me years to discover the premier lesson that God has a timing all His own and that I must not be impatient when His timing doesn’t coincide with mine.”

“Those who wait on God never wait too long.”

Chuck Wagner

AFFIRMATION:

God’s Time

“God’s time,
that comes to mind
when
I am impatient,
waiting for something I want to happen.

I pray, “in God’s time.”
then
I tap my fingers.
I want to move; I want it to happen
now!

God’s time,
I guess I’m learning, little by little.
why does it take so long?
a lifetime!
Amen.”

P. S. Thank you so much for the gifts you send to Transformation Garden which continue to assist our ministry here in the United States and in 192 countries around the world. 100% of your donation goes directly to providing for our daily devotionals and gift bookmarks. Transformation Garden is a non-profit organization so your gift is tax-deductible and you will receive a receipt for any gift you send.

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About Transformation Garden

Transformation Garden is a worldwide Christian ministry dedicated to encouraging and empowering women in their daily walk with Jesus. The devotional thoughts presented in Transformation Garden have their foundation in the Bible – the inspired word of God.